Open Access Policy
Open Access Policy
Section A: Publication and Authorship
- All submitted papers are subject to a strict peer-review process by at least two international reviewers who are experts in the particular paper's area. The Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief select the reviewers. The author can also propose reviewers for some journals and article types.
- The review considers factors such as relevance, originality, readability, statistical validity, and language.
- The possible decisions include acceptance, minor revisions, major revisions, or rejection.
- If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, the revised submission is not guaranteed to be accepted.
- Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed.
- Acceptance of the paper is constrained by such legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism as shall then be in force.
- Research cannot be included in more than one publication, whether within the same journal or in another journal.
Section B: Authors’ Responsibilities
- Authors must certify that their manuscript is their original work.
- Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or even submitted and reviewed in another journal.
- Authors must participate in the peer review process and follow the comments.
- Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
- All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. The level of their contribution also must be defined in the “Authors’ Contributions” section of the article.
- Authors must state that all data in the paper are real and authentic.
- Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest.
- Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscripts.
- Authors must report any errors they discover in their published papers to the Editors.
- Authors must not use irrelevant sources that may help other researchers/journals.
- Authors cannot withdraw their articles within the review process or after submission, or they must pay the penalty defined by the publisher.
Section C: Peer Review/Responsibility for the Reviewers
- Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information.
- Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author. No self-knowledge of the author(s) must affect their comments and decisions.
- Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments in 500 to 1000 words.
- Reviewers may identify relevant published work that the authors have not cited.
- Reviewers should also call to the editor-in-chief’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper they have personal knowledge.
- Reviewers should not review manuscripts with conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
Section D: Editorial Responsibilities
- Editors (Managing Editor or Editor-in-Chief) have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.
- Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication.
- Editors should always consider the needs of the authors and the readers when attempting to improve the publication.
- Editors should guarantee the papers' quality and the academic record's integrity.
- Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
- Editors should have a clear picture of a research’s funding sources.
- Editors should base their decisions solely on the paper's importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the publication’s scope.
- Editors should not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason.
- Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers (in half-blind peer-review journals).
- Editors should ensure that all published research material conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
- Editors should only accept a paper when reasonably certain.
- Editors should act if they suspect misconduct, whether a paper is published or unpublished, and make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem.
- Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions; they should have proof of misconduct.
- Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers, and board members.
- Editors must not change their decision after submitting a decision (especially after rejection or acceptance) unless they have a serious reason.
Section E: Publishing Ethics Issues
- All editorial members, reviewers, and authors must confirm and obey the rules defined by COPE.
- The corresponding author is the main owner of the article, so she/he can withdraw it when it is incomplete (before entering the review process or when a revision is requested).
- Authors cannot make major changes to the article after acceptance without a serious reason.
- All editorial members and authors must publish any corrections honestly and completely.
- Any notes of plagiarism, fraudulent data, or any other kinds of fraud must be reported completely to COPE.